# missing the forest for the trees (abstraction)

*Ordinarily means:* focusing too much on details and not seeing the whole picture

A model that is built on parts fails to form the whole because attention stays at a narrow level, and the boundary of the larger thing is not recognized even though its pattern is present.

- Computed level: L18 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: levels and abstraction  ·  Arena: cognitive

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-model.representation), [part](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-part.relation), [whole](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-whole.complete), [boundary](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-boundary.limit), [pattern](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-pattern.regularity), [focus](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-focus.attention), [narrow](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-narrow.spatial)

**Through:** parameter

**Novel properties:**
- emergent

## Examples
- The 2008 financial crisis followed analysts tracking individual mortgage defaults while ignoring systemic risk in housing markets. *(economics)*
- Engineers debugging individual circuits in the Ariane 5 rocket ignored integrated flight dynamics, causing cascade failure at launch. *(engineering)*
- Biologists studying isolated neuron firings in rat hippocampi initially missed the spatial map pattern emerging across the ensemble. *(neuroscience)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-missing-the-forest-for-the-trees.abstraction*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-missing-the-forest-for-the-trees.abstraction.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*